Triage: Binding
by Amber-Endorphin
Summary: It was like they were held together by a rubber band that, over the course of the year, stretched and thinned and strained. Everyone was waiting for it to break. But she's always been there, and she wont let them fall apart.


Triage: Rubber Band Ghosts

By Amber-Endorphin

**Sunday, September 02, 2007**

She stepped forwards. The movement sent a ripple of distress across her body, pulling taught muscles and half healing wounds apart and causing general discomfort. There was sweat all over her, dripping between her shoulder blades and in the awkward crevasses of her elbows and knees, stinging like hell when it spilled between her breasts and onto the slash across her stomach. It was mixed with all consistencies of blood. Some of it gushed from a shallow cut on her temple, _but head wounds always bleed the most,_ while in other places it dried and flaked and congealed.

It also rattled in her chest. _Lung puncture, probably a rib. _

One good aspect of being covered in all sorts of gore was that it caught the breeze just so. When the night wind blew through the trees and across the ground, it swept around her body in a cold blanket of comfort, cooling her flushed and sore figure. The wind was a blessing of late summer. Even on a night like this she could feel the difference. The days were cooler, walking out doors felt like passing by an oven after it had been left off for a while. It was pleasantly warm, with just enough chill at night to warn of the autumn and winter to come. The grass beneath her feet, normally dry and brittle, cushioned her soles with their crisp coolness.

_Where did that hole in my shoe come from? _It wasn't so much a hole as it was a gapping, partially melted portion of shoe that had been welded to the bottom of her foot.

She opened her mouth to inhale a calming breath and nearly choked, feeling as if she were drowning. The blood that had entered her lungs sprang into her mouth and scattered across her face and hands in coppery tasting droplets. They fell across her in their inky blackness while her analytical mind filed away the fact that moonlight had a way of hiding the shock value of blood. Normally crimson and brown, it soaked through her shirt and into the ground in rivulets of shadow.

_Probably why I always preferred to do my kills at night._ One more violent cough erupted from her burning throat before she felt well enough to breathe and speak. But looking up, she saw that her opponent was in no better condition, bothering himself over his own injuries. _Fucker._

With a cough of his own, the nameless ninja kicked the hand of one of his fallen comrades, _Or maybe one of mine._. "I suppose I should be thankful his face is intact." He whispered with an un-amused smirk. As if noticing her for the first time, he looked up and pulled his hands away from his own gapping wounds. "You know, they've inflicted too much damage. You can't win." He spread his hands, the palms smeared with more of the dark substance, gesturing towards the perpetual wall of blackness that was the forest, towards the others that would be making their way to the ambush site.

"But I can't leave." She made it a question while more flecks of blood darted from her lips to freckle her chin and cheeks.

He didn't laugh, and this time he didn't smirk. She knew he would want to save those for when her comrades found her broken and lifeless body—he'd save it for when it could do some real damage. But he did answer her. "No. No you cant leave."

So she moved. Left foot forwards, right hand extended across her chest. "Then," one last shuddering cough, "then I won't let you win either."

-

-

-

The rain fell around them. Fitting.

"Come home." The first murmured, voice hoarse and choked with tears.

For the first time in a long time the second answered, even though it hadn't been a question, without pause or thought. "Yes."

The rain poured down harder, adding to the illusion of the ghost between them.

"Yes."

-

-

-

It was so not going well.

"I understand what I have to do. I just need a moment," the girl said as she moved her hands over the wrong spot. Again.

Exasperated, Tsunade corrected the jounin. "No, you just aren't paying attention. You are going to have to go deep, but into the patient instead of into yourself, like you would for meditation. You need to see the bones from the inside. Have you been studying the skeletal structure at all? If you haven't been paying attention then you are going to make a mistake, and in this profession a mistake won't mean your life…" she paused then jerked her chin towards the sleeping patient. "It will mean theirs." For a moment, Tsunade was struck with the most painful sensation of dejavu, worse yet, she could picture in her minds eye the exact way this had happened before… ruined when—

The girl sucked in a trembling breath and tried to steady her shaking hands. "I… it wasn't part of the jounin curriculum for regular-nin. Not everyone needed to know it." Tears welled up in her large pale eyes. "I-I've looked at the books, and I swear, I k-know how—I just don't think I can do it."

Tsunade softened just a bit and with a sigh, positioned her hands over her student's. "I can help with that part. What you are going to have to do on your own, maybe not today—but someday for sure—is to apply your chakra to the breaks and the rips and the tears and it _will_ heal. You will also need to burn out any infection. Make sure the muscles, veins, and nerves knit together, not just the bone."

Awestruck, the jounin stared up at her and whispered, "that's so much…

"Responsibility? Work? Yeah," Tsunade smiled, "It is, but the strength of your desire will get it done. You have to really want this to work—not just the healing either, all of it, your job—or it wont last. Keeping your concentration, and your willpower, is going to be the hardest part of all you do in healing. You'll see terrible things, and you may not be able to save everyone." Her eyes dulled a bit, "I know I haven't. And when you are in the process of healing a patient, your mind will want to attend to something else, just as it does when we meditate to control our chakra. You'll get a muscle spasm…"

Here she slowly began to push her glowing chakra through the girls hand and into the sedated patient. This way, Tsunade figured, she would be able to take the girl on the journey and get a first hand look at what being a medic was all about.

"Or an itch, and trust me, you'll want to scratch." Squeezing the girls fingers slightly she spoke in deliberate, authoritative tones, "But you _cannot do that._ Not unless you plan to re-splint your friends and hope you can stay out of harms way long enough to do it all over again. Because most of our work is done out there on the field. Shinobi don't have the luxury of being able to report to the hospital whenever things go awry—because when shit happens—" the girl gasped at her teacher using a curse word, but Tsunade continued regardless.

"When shit happens, it's going to happen out there."

Then all talking ceased as she showed her what it was like to heal someone. First the chakra came swiftly into her hold. She guided it into the shinobi before her, the shinobi who showed in her vision as a man crissed crossed with different colored networks. All the systems were lit up, one by one. The cardiac system, digestive, lymphatic, nervous, and the chakra. They looked like glowing copper veins beneath his skin, and flared about him in shiny sparks and auras. This is what Tsunade saw when she looked with a healer's eyes… and she knew the girl next to her could see it too, if the gasp was any indication.

Gently, she shaped the grip of her mind around the chakra she was pumping into the man's system so that she could see the damage to the bones, and conducted the flow with a surgical precision. She picked at the tiny thread of her chakra that showed up in the man as a single gold glowing strand, and brought it onto the shattered bone. Gently, ever so gently, she began to pull away, hopping the girl would automatically pick up where she left off. It was a sink or swim moment.

The girl swam. Tsunade watched her in the beginning, until the setting began too painful and too much like the memory, and she left, posting another medic outside the door to monitor the trainee's process.

For the girl it was hard work. She was tired; her head began to ache. Healing the bone was requiring so much patience, and for a while it seemed as if nothing was happening. Once she almost gave up, until she remembered her teacher's violent temper, wholehearted trust, and promise that it _would heal._ Hinata, the girl, thought _'that's all need to learn to do.'_ And at last, she saw the movement. It was extremely strange, literally an out of body sensation.

Tiny bone spurs grew across the break, slowly at first, then quicker. Marrow formed, building itself inside the protection of the tougher spurs. Bruising in the muscles around the break began to vanish.

She was getting sleepy. Her back cramped almost unbearably. _'No.'_ She thought fiercely. _'No quitting—not ever.'_ So she didn't allow herself to think of anything else until marrow, bone, nerve, vein, and muscles were whole and healthy.

When she opened her eyes, she was sweating something frightening, and starving. Looking over at where Tsunade had been, she was startled to find the space empty.

"You've been at it for about four hours now." She was standing in the doorway with what appeared to be a rather large protein shake in hand. Passing it to Hinata as she entered, she looked over the healing. "Not bad, not bad at all." Glancing up she gave the star struck girl a brilliant smile. "Very good Hinata. You've done so much better than I had hoped."

Hinata flexed numb fingers around the chilly glass. "B-but I couldn't—that is," she gestured widely with one arm. "I've seen you. It's so quick, and you are talking and doing about a hundred other things at the same time." Suitably worked up, red in the face, she continued. "I'm never going to be able to do this in the field! I took four hours! Four." A little more subdued and defeated, "four."

There was no sympathy in Tsunade's gold eyes as she advanced on the black. "Listen up. That's why we study. Did you really expect to be able to do this perfectly the first time? Come on girl." She gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder and began to herd her out of the room. "Practice makes perfect you know."

Hinata gave a weak smile. "Yes ma'am."

Laughing, Tsunade gave her a little shove. "Go get something to eat. Meet up with your hunky lil beau. Healing takes it out of ya." Tucking her hands inside the white medical robe pockets, she started to head in the opposite direction.

"Wait! Tsunade-sempai?"

Tsunade turned around, the questioning wrinkle between her eyes. "What's up?"

"How long did it take her? You know, on her first try." But Tsunade didn't reply, just smiled a sad little smile, and walked away.

_Too long._

-

-

-

It wasn't like he didn't know. Sure, there had been times when the entire village knew something that went right over the idiot's head, but those times had been a while ago. He was Hokage for god's sake. Obviously he was going to find out.

Still, Sasuke wasn't going to miss the opportunity to watch as Naruto was finally confronted about the issue that had, for so long, unknowingly followed him since the Academy.

Standing outside the Hokage's office, he gave the girl an amused one-over before giving her a curt, "Wait here," and walking inside.

The blonde firecracker was looking out the window again, one hand propping up his chin and head while the other tapped and impatient tempo on the desk with the nearest kunai. _Somebody forgot to tell him about all the paper work he'd have to do, _they both thought.

Sasuke often found him just like this near the end of the day, when Naruto was at his most anxious. While becoming Hokage had been his life long dream come true, it never meant that he would give up on the other things that used to take up his time. Like frequent trips to Ichiraku's and the training field. On occasion, he also liked to stop by the Academy to pick on the teachers. A tactic, he said, that gave the students confidence. After all, if the Hokage could chew out the overbearing instructors, then more students were going to strive and compete for the same privilege.

Everyone had to agree, while more often than not he was blunt and tactless, there were still times that he could prove himself foxy. No pun intended of course. Still, it never quite stopped being a surprise for the Uchiha prodigy. Sometimes it was hard for him to see anyone other than who Naruto used to be. Loud, obnoxious, thickheaded and stubborn.

A lot of things never change.

The blonde looked up as he entered, an expectant light in his eyes. "Can I go yet?" He looked like an overgrown puppy, all he was missing was the wagging tail.

Sasuke shook his head. "Last bit of business. The Hyuuga has finally come for you."

Naruto shifted in his seat and scratched his head. "What for? What's pissed Neji off this time?"

Sasuke shook his head yet again. "The other one." Suddenly he watched as the happy-go-lucky light in his friend's eyes became something else entirely.

With a desperate and pained edge to his voice, Naruto asked, "Hanabi?"

The other shinobi didn't even dignify the question with a proper response. He merely snorted. With that snort Naruto looked as if the axe had fallen. "Alright…." He paused dramatically, looking ready to martyr himself. "Send her in."

The raven haired man smirked and headed for the door. "And Sasuke?"

Opening the doors, the Uchiha turned his upper body back towards the Hokage who was sending him a nice little glare. "Don't listen."

The former missing-nin just popped another smirk into place and gestured the other jounin into the large office.

As the doors closed behind her, Naruto noted with an offhanded sort of calculation that she still jumped at loud noises. _I might want to use more oil on that door._ It being the only door in all of Konoha that probably ever saw oil. What could one say? Shinobi were inherently paranoid. But having so much foot traffic in his office, it seemed pointless and needlessly annoying to want the door to scream each and every time it opened or closed. He watched, silently, as her pale eyes darted about the office, not taking notice of the accessible exits—but rather just scanning the walls and shelves, only looking. When the silence had stretched into discomfort he spoke. "What can I do for you Hinata-san?"

Immediately her eyes fell to the floor, a pretty blush creeping across her cheeks. And if memory served him right… _Probably her entire body was flushed._ Non pulsed by his own thoughts he held the silence longer this time, waiting her out.

"N-n.. Hokage-sama…" She trailed off, unsure. Once again, her eyes fled his and traveled across the room, this time more boldly as they settled on the windowsill behind him. Seeming to gather courage from what she saw there, she returned her gaze to his.

"I… I love you."

For a brief moment her mind flashed to the handsome canine-minded shinobi who would be waiting to have lunch with her today. Kiba and her had been dating for a while now and he had been hinting at something a bit more serious. But she couldn't do it, not yet.

She still remembered his hands, and the needy way he'd held her, so long ago.

Her heart still belonged to him, after all the years where he'd never looked at her with anything but friendly indifference. None of the passion and the emotion of before. She'd thought that she had moved on, but her heart rebelled at the thought of spending her life with Kiba—not if there was any chance at all with Naruto Uzumaki.

So she told him, a little more assuredly. "I love you."

He gave her a soft, sad smile.

Her heart broke.

-

-

-

It hadn't been working out. All the not-thinking he'd been doing, it had begun to take it's toll on his temper. He spent so much time _not-thinking_ about them that, once again, he couldn't bring himself to focus on his goal, his purpose, his vengeance. It was all wrapped up in one very pretty, very dangerous package.

Itachi.

And, when it came to pertaining this goal, the issue of his focus could become a critical factor. Sasuke knew he needed to put a hundred percent into his development, otherwise his older brother would simply wipe the floor with him all over again. So the matter boiled down to one thing…

Naruto, and Sakura.

Sometimes, without him even being aware, he would wonder about the most inane things. Was Naruto still decked out in orange? Did Sakura decide to grow her hair out?

And then there were the not so inane things: Were they okay?

For a while 'Did they hate him?' had been right up and on that list too. But after hearing reports of their continuous attempts to find him, he was able to answer that for himself. Those two just didn't hate the way he did. In a strange, and ironic way, he supposed it was fitting.

He'd spent a lot of time thinking about them, already feeling like he was on the edge of some epiphany or another.

That's when some young nobody up and killed Itachi, effectively ripping the 'rug' out from under him. It was all very anti-climactic. The man that had taken up most of his thoughts during his pubescent years was suddenly not there anymore. At least, that was how Orochimaru had delivered the news.

Many other people saw it in an entirely different light.

All he knew at the time was that he was suddenly without direction.

For most of his life he had been fighting the memory of Itachi. During his childhood he had always been compared to the older boy. His life then had revolved around living up to his brother's set standard. And then, after his family had been killed, his life had become about Itachi. To kill him. To beat him once and for all.

Kinda sad, he thought, to have your entire life compared to another's, to be judged based on another's achievements.

He felt a twinge of sympathy for the girl, knowing that it was never easy realizing that you couldn't win over a memory. He was still thinking of Itachi and wondering about the sort of person who'd be able to kill him when the feeling was gone, almost before he allowed himself to notice it had even existed in the first place.

But Naruto noticed. He paced the length of his office, devoid of any other shinobi. "I…" He looked downcast, one hand raking through his permanently disheveled locks, "I tried to… I told her…"

Sasuke only shrugged, watching the tell tale signs of his friends distress as they multiplied. Any second now he would begin to jerk on the ends of his robe sleeves. "It doesn't matter how easy you tried to let her down. Rejection is never easy to digest." Hearing his own words made him sick to his stomach.

Blue eyes stared at him with surprise. "Naruto, if you don't put those back in your head, I wont ever speak again." He hoped the shock of such a long statement would take away from just _what_ he'd actually said.

But Naruto wasn't Hokage for nothing. And he'd always been a good listener. The surprise on his face quickly died, replaced by a darker cloud of regret, anger, and self depreciation. "As if I don't know." And then, wanting to share a bit of his misery, he shot the other man a look from the corner of his eye. "So what's it like dolling it out on your end?"

Sasuke clamped his jaw shut tight, grinding his teeth as he did so. "I don't know Naruto, how did it feel just now?"

The two locked gazes and dropped all pretenses of civility. "Figured I'd ask the expert, seeing as how you were doing it left and right way back then."

"I wasn't the only one. How'd it feel though, to be Dead La— " Naruto leaped.

Across the hall a few of the office working nin gave a collective gasp. "Aw shit!" "Is it that time of the year again?" "We've got to get them out of here before it happens like last time!" Tsunade, who had been walking through the tower in search Kakashi, needing to talk to him about his recent involvement with Icha Icha, stopped to watch the fight unravel.

It happened every year. Never on the same date, and never on The day. Sometimes twice a year, but every year non the less. Eventually the frustrations and the wears and tears of life in Konoha began to get the best of both of them.

When Sasuke had returned, shit had hit the fan on a very literal level. As reigning Hokage, it had been her duty to punish him for his transgressions, even though she was sympathetic to his situation, it didn't change the fact that she had to do something. So she'd proclaimed him under imprisonment until the reign of the next Hokage, and then he would still be remanded to the village for at least five years.

Everyone had been excited, until she'd abruptly left the office.

Well, 'abruptly' to the majority of the Konoha residents. To those close to her, they knew she was already too tired to continue on. So it suited her purpose to change out of the position soon after the proclamation of Sasuke's sentence. That way he didn't have to serve much prison time. When Naruto took up the mantel, many had worried that he would vanquish the sentence all together. To everyone's surprise he'd almost doubled the probation sentence.

It had been the first of the yearly blowups. But afterwards they were back to being the best of friends. It was strange, their friendship. There was a level of understanding between the two that was hard to find anywhere else. You never saw one without the other. Even if they went about the course of their lives, say, picking up some girl from some bar, the next morning they would be at the others house, fessing up.

Stranger yet, there was an implicit amount of trust between the two. They were the two most powerful ninja in the village and everyone knew their story. They knew that Sasuke had abandoned him at one point in his life and couldn't seem to understand how Naruto couldn't trust him not to do so again. But if anyone looked close enough, they could see that there were binds that tied them close together. Memories and experiences that lay between them and created this trust and understanding.

On the same token, this closeness was not something that their natures were attuned for. Sasuke was a naturally caustic person. And Naruto was open and loud and personable. They grated against each other.

It was as if they were held together by a rubber band that, over the course of the year, stretched and thinned and strained.

Once a year the tension was too much. The two would throw insults and verbal daggers until they graduated to punches and jutsu. On the good years they were able to take the fight to a more open area, while on others the property damages were enough to make the counsel talk of impeachment. Though it would never happen, the citizens of Konoha all considered it something of a spectator sport. A yearly event for bragging rights in which for weeks afterwards, all the villagers would be heard saying things like, "and the crater was this big!"

Tsunade knew the truth. And, having watched Hinata retreat to the safety of her dog man's arms, she would hazard that the young Hyuuga now knew it as well.

"Fucking bastard! You cant do anything right? Can you? How'd that Itachi thing work out for you anyways—ever find out who fucking killed him instead?"

The aging blonde healer winced, once again remembering why best friends shouldn't get into fights--they had too much emotional ammo. And from the looks of it, they were going to go all out.

There was a muffled 'thump' and then the echoing sound of an elbow connecting into the back. With a roar of anger, Sasuke spun away to return the favor.

"What about you? Huh? Ever find what you were looking for when you used that Hyuuga girl?"

That earned a gasp from everyone nearby, including Tsunade—though not for the same reason as the others. That was as close to the truth as they'd come so far.

This time though, Naruto didn't retaliate, but Sasuke wasn't finished yet. "Maybe it was an unfulfilled promise! After all," He slammed his knee up into the Hokage's gut, "I came back by myself, didn't I!"

Still Naruto didn't respond, just stared in the distance between them, his eyes wide, his breathing harsh and eratic. Sasuke was panting too, turning the full force of his sharingan onto his friend.

"Well?"

After the first time the two fought, all the guards around the Hokage had learned not to interfere, and had learned the hard way. But that didn't stop them from crowding around, mentally ripping the Uchiha Traitor into pieces. An act that they would physically perform should they feel the need to.

"Well!" Sasuke shouted, not advancing on his blonde counterpart should he give the ANBU squad a reason for them to rip him a new one. Still, he was getting frustrated with the lack of response from Naruto.

They stood like that for a while, just breathing heavy and echoing through the hallway. Until, finally, Naruto looked up.

"I was trying to forget her."

Sasuke, still revved up for a fight, hardly heard a word he'd said before he snapped back, "Excuses—

"No," a soft voice interrupted from the sidelines. Many heads turned to look at a scarlet Hinata. "It-it's why h-he used me."

The next word forming on her lips was taboo, and everyone knew it. Everyone could tell what she was about to say and suddenly no one wanted to be around. With desperate awkwardness, the bystanders shuffled (in a rather hurried manner) away from the scene. No one wanted to be around to witness the repercussions of the word that was about to be spoken, the word that begged to be said aloud and acknowledged.

"It's why he can't love me."

Tsunade wasn't ready for it either. Eyes wide and teary, she shoved mental cotton into her ears and shut herself down, walking away with the crowd. It was there that she spotted the man she had been looking for, walking away in front of her. Seeing his shock of white hair made her feel cold and sad deep in the pit of her stomach. They all shared a common piece of pain. It was the way of the nin to loose those you cared for, in ways that are hard to understand. The past of the most infamous shinobi were practically public. Everyone had some dark and painful secret that everyone else seemed to have an idea about. The thing was, no one went around and talked about it. To mention the source of pain for particular shinobi was like inviting your own death.

"I-it's why you came back S-sa-sasuke."

She moved faster.

The Hokage and the Uchiha had one trait in common. They could be volatile. No one breathed a word of their combined pains, no one but them.

Everyone was afraid that if this word was spoken, the rubber band that held the two together would break. And then the cost of property damage would be the last worry on the councils' minds.

There was a pause as Hinata gathered her breath, not caring that she had been left alone. Something told her that this was what was needed, that this name needed to be validated, given sound.

Masochistic, a few, including Kakashi, paused with her. They knew what was coming. Knew she would be dredging up memories for the teams of ANBU that had found her final resting place, and that of her squad.

With a sigh, she gave a name to the ghost that lay between the two shinobi, bound to them closer than either of them could ever know.

"… Sakura."

-

-

-

Gasping around a mouthful of blood, she balled her fists and fell to the base of the nearest tree. One eye sealed shut over rapidly cooling and crusting gore, the other stayed open to observe the action of the man.

He too fell to the ground, maybe ten feet away. The pale ivory of bone erupted from his leg. Sprouting from the midst of torn and bleeding skin, it pierced the clothes around it. _Looks painful,_ she thought to herself, closing her remaining and useful green eye.

He looked up through a curtain of dark and matted hair, glaring at her with dark eyes. _Not dark,_ she corrected herself fuzzily, remembering that moonlight washed away the colors. _Red, just like blood._ The sharingan was no longer activated, he didn't have the strength the utilize it. It was doubtful that whoever stumbled on them would be able to identify him. At first anyways. They wouldn't be able to tell who he was from his comrades, who'd been masked nin from wave.

To anyone who did figure it out… it would look like the two squads had destroyed each other.

As the knowledge settled on him like a comforting hand, he glanced up at the woman who had brought him down. She was familiar, he just couldn't understand—

"Why?" He asked, his coughing mingling with hers as he slumped over and into a more comfortable position.

The kunoichi gave him a scathing look. "So that Sasuke could stop making excuses, and so Naruto wouldn't have to."

Itachi curled his lip reflexively, "You're talking about killing me, but you haven't."

Sakura smirked. "Oh yes, yes I have." She shifted a bit, wincing as every piece of her screamed in agony. "Listen, if it's any consolation," this time her smile was bitter and sardonic, "You've killed me too."

"You knew you would die, one could say you killed yourself." _For a dying man, he sure does speak a lot._

She rolled her good eye. "For the love of god, shut up already. Better me than them." She prayed he would shut up now, as tired as she was, she wasn't sure it would make a difference though.

The awful choking-gasping sound she heard next must have been his laughter as he barked out, "Triage."

But she only nodded her head in accent. "Exactly."

He regarded her solemnly for a moment before speaking up again, his voice growing fainter and fainter. "You love them."

There once was a time when Sakura would have vehemently argued against having any kind feelings for Naruto. There was once a time where she had thought herself in love with Sasuke. Over the course of her life, her feelings had changed drastically. Naruto was her best friend. He always would be, but there was so much more to their relationship. He was sunshine and summer and everything good that she could ever care for. Always there for her, unwavering and selfless in ways she couldn't even begin to comprehend… not to mention obnoxious, persistent, and just.. Naruto. Sasuke was her first crush. Like a drug, everything about him had drawn her in like a moth towards the dying flame. And like a drug, he was terrible for her, all wrong yet feeling exactly right. Thinking about them side by side, she had no reservations about who she would choose if she could do it all over again. But she couldn't.

She loved them both in her own crazy way. She needed them both in order to feel whole and alive.

If only they could see how much they needed each other, the way that she could see it. Naruto was all that Sasuke could have been. And Sasuke was everything that Naruto cared about. His first friend, his brother, someone like him.

She could see it—why couldn't they?

_They'd better see it now. Stupid boys._

"Yeah. Yeah I do."

She might have asked him some questions too, maybe a 'why' of her own. But she was thinking about Naruto and how, right now, he was probably passing the time in his favorite restaurant, eating five different bowls of ramen.

With a smile on her face, Sakura fell asleep, and never woke up.

-

-

-

Blue and black eyes traced the curve of her name across the angled black stone.

"I wish she could have seen you… you know."

"I know."

"… what do you think she'd say if she were here?" It was a strange question, sounding stranger as it crawled out of a mouth drenched with tears.

The other man thought about it for a moment, his throat tightening as he retraced her name for the sixth time. "I don't know."

That brought a weak smile to the first mans face. "Well, that's a first."

They stood shoulder to shoulder for a little while, just starring down at the stone, all the unsaid things and actions coalescing and falling around them in invisible sparks.

"I loved her you know. She was my best friend."

"I know."

"And you—?"

Sasuke knelt down and re arranged the flowers. "She was my friend too."

A warm feeling spread about his gut, thawing his chest. But his throat only got tighter, and only tears would loosen it. _Well, the flowers need water anyway,_ it was a ridiculous thought, he knew it and it made him laugh a little.

Naruto heard him, and with the sound of Sasuke's laugh, something inside of him and between them lifted and healed. They no longer held the ghost between them as if it were a death sentence, finally using it like it was meant to be—to live.

_Ah, Sakura-chan. I wish you were here._

A cool breeze, the last gift of late summer blew through the branches of trees, sprawled along the crisp, cool grass and wrapped around him like a familiar caress.

"You know what?" He said abruptly, his blue eyes sparkling in a way that they hadn't for years. "I think she's here!"

Sasuke gave him an alarmed glance.

"Partly! You know, like in spirit." Naruto pushed a hand through his hair and smiled down at the dark stone. "And I think she'd be happy. This," he gestured between them, "This is what she's always wanted."

Sasuke liked that, liked feeling as if it were the three of them all over again. Not two of them plus the weight of memories.

He stood up and glanced over at the Hokage and smiled too. "I think you're right Naruto."

As he turned to walk away, the playful breeze twining between his legs and through the sleeves of his shirt, he shot back over his shoulder, "For once, anyway."

Naruto's "Oi!" Could be heard all the way across the village, and all who noticed breathed a sigh of relief. With the acknowledgment of the bond between them, the rubber band had done its job and had snapped back into place, stronger than ever.

_Thank you Sakura._

-

-

-

Sitting atop the windowpane, within the Hokage's office, the light danced off a picture of team seven.

As complete as she always knew they would be.

-

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

AN: Second installment completed! This is vastly different from my last fic. Different style too. I really wanted to enfisize the use of 'Triage' in this story, by having one of the three consciously cut themselves out of the picture so that the other two could survive. At first I had planned to make Sasuke die… but I don't know, I liked my idea better because—honestly it makes more sense to me… sorta.

**So. Only sorta NaruSaku, with an emphises on friendship… remember, this is my 'project'. Much experimentation will be going on. As in style, setting, point of view. The next one is definitely going to be from Kakashi's pov. I've had the idea in my head for a while, I mean, how must he feel knowing that his two 'worst' students excelled only after he had pulled himself away from them? That's involuntary Triage my dears! What do you think?**

**ALSO! Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Awesome awesome awesome. I tell myself I don't care if people review or not, but it is always nice to know that your work is appreciated, and to receive comments/criticism (as politely formed as possible) because it means you all took the time to let them (them being the authors) know what's up. So, thank you.**

**Special Thanks and Dedications to…**

**Advent Griever**

**Kabata4life**

**Doc Destructo**

**DaOrangeStrikesAgain**

**Scorpio-angel-10**

**FallArbor**

**Suzako**

**Wolf8357**

**Ubiquitous Jade (you made me smile something furious)**

**Secret Identity**

**ChaosLink**

**Templar123**

**Gnosismaster**

I blame all of you for my… slow update I got so caught up reading all of those stories. Thanks a lot! Normally I surf author profiles and sift through their 'favorite stories' but that takes a while. So, really, YY my eyes just need to adapt to computer light… only computer light.

**Okay. That is all. You want to know what was going through my head whilst I wrote this? Listen to Paramore: All We Know Is Falling.**

**Ta Ta.**

**PSPSPS: Beta me anyone?? Help?**


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